OPINION:
Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook-turned-Meta fame, is so enamored with the idea of free speech, and so in love with Donald Trump, he’s firing his fact-checkers and doing an Elon Musk and adopting a “community notes” model on his platforms, and oh, yes, giving a cool $1 million to the president-elect for his inauguration.
My, how fear does motivate.
This is the same Zuckerberg who banned Trump from Facebook and Instagram on Jan. 7, 2021 — a day after Trump posted a video in which he said this to his supporters: “I know now your pain. I know you’re hurt. We had an election that was stolen from us. It was a landslide election, and everyone knows it, especially the other side, but you have to go home now. We have to have peace. We have to have law and order. We have to respect our great people in law and order. We don’t want anybody hurt. … This was a fraudulent election, but we can’t play into the hands of these people. We have to have peace. So go home. We love you … go home and go home in peace.”
Shortly after, Facebook removed the post, citing violations of its Community Standard on Dangerous Individuals and Organizations.
Trump then posted a written message on Facebook that said this: “These are the things and events that happen when a sacred landslide election victory is so unceremoniously viciously stripped away from great patriots who have been badly unfairly treated for so long. Go home with love in peace. Remember this day forever!”
Facebook then removed this post, citing violations of its Community Standard on Dangerous Individuals and Organizations.
Facebook then blocked Trump from posting to Facebook and Instagram for 24 hours.
Facebook then blocked Trump from posting to Facebook and Instagram for two weeks — or “indefinitely.”
Facebook board members then hunkered together and pretended to give Trump the due diligence treatment by reviewing his ban and considering his reinstatement.
Facebook then in June 2021 extended Trump’s ban for two years, saying he could only be reinstated once “the risk to public safety has receded.”
Or — as it appears — he wins reelection.
As CNN wrote this January: “Four years ago, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg banned Donald Trump from Facebook and Instagram, saying the risks of allowing him on the platforms were ’simply too great’ after Trump repeatedly used the sites to broadcast election lies and cheer on the January 6 mob. A lot’s changed. Now, Zuckerberg is making it crystal clear that Meta and MAGA can get along.”
Zuckerberg is moving toward a more Musk-like X approach to social media, opening doors wide to free speech while allowing others — others on the platform, rather than corporate-installed hacks — to determine facts versus myths and weigh in with countering viewpoints. He’s hired Dana White of UFC fame — an open Trump supporter — to serve on Meta’s board of directors. He’s accepted the resignation of globalist Nick Clegg, the U.K. guy in charge of all the censorship years of Facebook and instead hired Joel Kaplan, a Republican lobbyist, to be head of global affairs for Meta. He’s moving the remaining content moderator team to Texas, and out of California, saying this will “remove the concern that biased employees are overly censoring content,” CNN wrote, citing Zuckerberg. And — and, on the heels of visiting Trump at Mar-a-Lago — he’s donating $1 million to Trump’s inauguration fund.
Wow.
It’s like Zuckerberg has suddenly seen the free-speech light. Or has he?
The more likely scenario is Zuckerberg is running scared from the reality of an incoming Trump presidency and he’s tossing down the pragmatic card. He wants to keep his business running smoothly without fear of Team Trump retribution. He recognizes the political winds have shifted — and they’re blowing with gale force his way.
“Meta quietly updated its guidelines to free users who want to refer to gay and transgender people as having a ’mental illness,’” CNN wrote.
Fear is a powerful motivator.
Meanwhile, Melania Trump scored a $40 million deal for a documentary about the life of a first lady from Amazon — yes, Amazon, the former playground of Trump-scorning Jeff Bezos. That’s after Hollywood studios fought for the rights to do the documentary — yes, Hollywood, the playground of leftist, MAGA-hating studio executives.
Oh, what a difference an election can make.
Zuckerberg’s not the only tech chief giving to Trump’s inauguration. Amazon and its executive chairman Jeff Bezos — who squashed an endorsement of Kamala Harris for president at the paper he runs, The Washington Post — are giving $1 million. OpenAI CEO’s Sam Altman is giving $1 million. Uber’s CEO gave a total of $2 million.
It’s a Silicon Valley windfall.
But believing that these Big Tech types are making some sort of mea culpa for past censorship behaviors, and completely shifting toward a more open and accepting embrace of free speech, is folly.
Zuckerberg, in particular, had a yearslong heyday of stifling not just Trump, but all those who stated viewpoints that countered the Democrat government narrative on COVID, the Democrat government narrative on Hunter Biden, the Democrat government narrative on any-and-all-things-conservative.
Had Kamala Harris won and not Donald Trump, Zuckerberg’s Meta would be hiring more censors.
His present-day gaslighting is pure politics and the Hail Mary of moves to preserve his personal ambitions, and when the day comes that another Democrat wins the White House, watch and see — his censorship ways will return.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on X @ckchumley. Listen to her podcast “Bold and Blunt” by clicking HERE. And never miss her column; subscribe to her newsletter and podcast by clicking HERE. Her latest book, “Lockdown: The Socialist Plan To Take Away Your Freedom,” is available by clicking HERE or clicking HERE or CLICKING HERE.
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